The way we consume media like TV shows, movies, and even music, has changed drastically over the last several years.

Video rental stores like Blockbuster have gone the way of the dinosaur, and streaming media has risen to take their place. As a matter of fact, an incredible 85% of US households have at least one video streaming service. Furthermore, the streaming industry is expected to be worth $330 billion by 2030. With the growing popularity of Over-The-Top (OTT) streaming media services, it’s no surprise the streaming app market is highly competitive. But with so much competition, how do you make your streaming service stand out?

Start with the right features.

Must Have Streaming App Features

Eye Catching/User-Friendly Interface Design

Creating a unique interface design works in your favor because it will help grab your users’ attention. Furthermore, it helps your streaming app stand out in a somewhat crowded and established market.

But more than simply creating a unique design, your interface needs to be user-friendly as well. In today’s saturated streaming media app market, users don’t want to spend time learning an overly complicated interface. Users want easy access to their favorite content. Making them navigate through confusing buttons, tabs, and screens will only drive them to your competitors.

Original Content

When you think about the big streaming apps, like Netflix, Amazon, and Disney+, what is it about them that keeps bringing viewers back?

The short answer is: original content.

In fact, according to Cloudwards, 32% of streaming app users say they would subscribe to a new service for original shows or movies produced by the streaming service. That means quality content, coupled with strong marketing and promotion will bring in a significant number of new subscribers.

Global Content

With access to a huge variety of media, global content is gaining popularity among streaming app users. This sort of media is an easy way for people to explore new cultures and languages, and experience people, traditions, and points of view from around the world.

That means including TV shows and movies from a wide library of global genres can be a powerful draw for viewers.

Customization Options

In today’s world of personalization and customization, giving your users more control over the platform is a must.

Some of the most popular customization options user look for include:

• General account settings, like privacy, ad options, theme, layout, etc;
• Playback speed;
• Control over language dubbing and subtitles;
• Changing resolution;
• Personalized playlists;
• Smart recommendations.

Recommendation Algorithm

Did you know that 80% of Netflix viewer activity is driven by the streaming service’s recommendation engine? That translates into real world savings for the media giant. In fact, it’s estimated that the Netflix Recommendation Engine (NRE) saves the company over $1 billion every year.

Netflix uses user viewing behavior to make these recommendations, which means it engages with users in a personalized way. Therefore, adding one to your own streaming app should be a no brainer, and could be a game changer for your budding service.

Parental Controls

Chances are a significant portion of your actual viewers will be children. And unless your aim is to create a streaming app specifically for children’s content, you’re likely to have media that is not appropriate for all ages. For this reason, parental controls are a must. With this basic feature, parents can control the content their children see.

Social Media Shareability

With social media now one of the principal ways people interact with one another online, your streaming app should offer some sort of shareable content. Even if all that is being shared is that users are watching a certain TV show or movie, it will still help generate buzz; for both your platform and the actual content. That makes social media shareability an excellent way to reach new audiences.

Offline Mode/Local Storage

One feature that allows your users more flexibility is an offline mode. With streaming media, success is often dependent on network access and quality. But when people are traveling, or know they will be in an area without a good network, they may still want to access your content.

Therefore, it’s a good idea to give your users the ability to store videos locally on their device. That way the user can download their favorite media and watch it whenever they want, regardless of network access or quality.

Security/Privacy

Now, access to content of all kinds is easy and nearly unlimited. But hand-in-hand with this incredible level of access is a heightened threat of external security breaches.

To safeguard your users’ privacy and data, you’ll need to invest in high-level security measures. This begins with your server of choice. You’ll want one that is safe, stable, and scalable. Additionally, you’ll want to ensure you have strong encryption standards, certificates, and security protocols. All of this is of critical importance to secure your users’ data against unforeseen cyber attacks or data breaches.

Systematic Updates

To offer the very best user experience, you can’t simply build your streaming app and then sit back and relax. Instead, you’ve got to keep up with trends and adjust your app to user and technology changes.

One way to achieve this is to keep a keen eye on your competition. What are they offering that you don’t? Is there something you can offer that they can’t?

You might also consider directly asking your users for their opinions, ask for beta testers of new features, create user-friendly forms for suggestions, and keep an eye on users’ viewing behavior.

Wrapping Up

When it comes to building a streaming app, offering the right mix of features is a must. It’s features like these that ensure your service looks professional, is user-oriented, and proves that you care about the user experience. In the end, there is no rule guaranteeing success in the highly competitive OTT and streaming media market. The only guiding principle is to make your platform as user-centric as possible. That means you need to make sure your strategy aligns strongly with your audience’s demands and expectations.

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Voice search may still be in its earliest days, but the technology is improving at an incredible pace. As a result, it won’t be long before voice search technology revolutionizes not only the way we search the internet, but how we interact with our devices. You can stay ahead of the curve by integrating voice search technology now.

Here’s why it’s a good idea.

The Importance of Search

A search function is a valuable part of applications across industries. As such, developers spend a lot of time and effort making them work properly. The goal, of course, is to not only get users to search, but more importantly, find what they are looking for. Even if you have something unique to offer, it won’t do your business any good if users can’t find it.

The Difference Between Traditional Search & Voice Search

Search bars are so easy to recognize you no longer need to label them. Simply add a small magnifying glass icon and your users will understand. With that in mind, it’s important to remember that voice search is not just a search bar paired with a speech-to-text system. Using an approach like that will only lead to a poor user experience.

In fact, users use voice search differently from traditional search; in general, voice searches are usually expressed in natural language, and are often longer than their typed counterparts. For example, imagine a user is looking to purchase a stereo system for their car through your app. Typing “Sony DXS-M5511BT Stereo” into a search bar is natural – but saying it out loud is far less natural. Instead, this user might simply say “Sony car stereos.”

This difference has clear implications for voice search and how it pertains to user experience.

Benefits of Adding Voice Search

When compared to traditional search and search filters, voice search has a few benefits.

Synonyms

One of the challenges of graphical user interfaces is that there needs to be some sort of button for every function. For example, if you want your users to be able to search by category, users must be able to see each category. Due to this, you’ll need to decide which categories are most important, and decide on specific names for each of them.

Consider this scenario: you sell licensed clothing. You’ll need to decide if your users will find band tee shirts under the category “shirts,” “tee shirts,” “graphic tees,” or “band tees.” Subcategories are always an option, but creating a category hierarchy only leads to clicking and searching – not the best user experience.

Voice search doesn’t suffer from this limitation. Instead, you can define an unlimited number of synonyms for your categories and products. By simply saying what it is they’re looking for, users can be immediately directed to the proper product.

Seamless User Experience

Creating an app is one thing, but making it popular with your users is something completely different. In order to ensure the popularity of your application, and add necessary value, you must offer something unique. One way to do this is through the implementation of voice search. The technology is still relatively simple, yet it has already been embraced by the public. This is thanks to many factors, including the technology’s flexibility, as well as its speed. Indeed, according to a study done by Stanford researchers, users can speak up to three times faster than they can type on a mobile device. That means voice search can provide results faster than most people can even type their inquiry into the search bar.

Consequently, with such technologies in place, users get better, faster services and a unified response to user queries.

Better (And More Enjoyable) User Interactions

One of the biggest advantages of adding voice search to your mobile app is enhanced personalization and a direct line of communication with users. Voice search provides an easy-to-use channel that represents the fastest and safest way to communicate. Perhaps more surprisingly, not only do users find voice search helpful, they enjoy using it!

Artificial Intelligence

Another advantage to adding voice search to your mobile app is how it supports compatibility with artificial intelligence (AI). This in turn, creates a variety of possible advanced options. Indeed, choosing to add voice search strategies offers users seamless – and highly advanced – interactivity. Consider devices and applications such as Alexa, Siri, and Cortana.

Why You Need to Add Voice Search to Your Mobile App Development

Even beyond these benefits, there are more practical reasons you should add voice search to your mobile app development process, now.

Voice Search Tech is Constantly Improving

Many so-called “smart” technologies advance slowly; thanks to the sophistication of these technologies, it takes time to make updates. However, this is not true for voice search. In fact, voice search technology advances every day. This is especially true when you pair voice search with AI, which gives it the power to learn and improve all on its own.

Voice Search is Now Common

Voice search is now everywhere. In fact, according to recent reporting from Siteefy:

• Almost 50% of people search for products with voice search.
• 24% of adults in the US have at least one smart speaker device in their homes. This is expected to increase to 55% in 2022.
• 29% of smart speaker users have three spart speaker gadgets.
• 20% of smart speaker users use it multiple times a day.
• Voice search use increased 3500% between 2008 and 2016.

These numbers will only increase as the technology improves and users become more familiar with it.

Voice Search Offers Inclusivity and Accessibility

Finally, voice search offers a way for users to interact with your app apart from their hands. This creates opportunities for disabled people, or others – like older adults – who may have difficulty with “traditional” app interfaces.

Additionally, if you add voice search, you have an opportunity to connect with users who may not be native speakers of your primary language. In fact, you can apply as many languages as you see fit to your voice search. Many bilingual people find information easier to understand when it is presented in their native language.

In Conclusion…

Most businesses want to grow strategically through the implementation of technology. This urge has driven countless companies to migrate to the digital world so they can reach out to their consumers in new and exciting ways. Choosing to add voice search is one such way, and trends suggest it will be a significant factor in how people find content online. Chances are it will never replace traditional search in the near future, but it does already offer many advantages today.

As the world becomes more and more digital, it’s critical for businesses to understand how to adapt to how their users are searching, in addition to what they are searching for. Voice search is one way to do that, and an experienced mobile app development team can help you implement it.

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Let’s discuss both.

What is 5G?

To the uninitiated, all the hype surrounding 5G may seem overblown; it’s just the next step up from 4G, right? Wrong. 5G isn’t simply a modification or upgrade of 4G. Rather, it is an entirely new technology, built from the ground up. In fact, 5G offers a new network architecture that provides significantly improved performance for the user and will influence the development of 5G apps in the future. Not only will this performance revolutionize the way people communicate, it will also provide mobile app developers with new possibilities.

Here are some of its key features:

Lighting-Fast Speed

4G technology provides data speeds that can theoretically reach 300 Mbps. 5G, however, offers maximum theoretical connectivity speeds that reach over 10 gigabits per second. That means, even under ideal circumstances, 5G maxes out at more than 30 times faster than 4G. In the real world, 5G has the potential to reach 100 times faster than 4G.

Lower Latency

5G utilizes Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC), which allows it to deliver data in a millisecond—virtually instantly. For reference the average latency of 4G technology is approximately 50 milliseconds. This substantial improvement is an essential feature for those using telecommunications technology to make critical decisions.

Increased Connectivity

4G technology allows 2,000 devices, within 1 square kilometer, to connect at once. While this seems like a large number, 5G overcomes this limitation on a massive scale: 5G allows for up to one million devices to be connected at the same time.

5G has the ability to handle this immense network load while allowing smooth communication between apps and hardware. This colossal increase to connection density will be of great benefit to the implementation of IoT in mobile apps.

Improved Bandwidth

5G technology has been designed to utilize all previous cellular band spectrums for better connectivity. That means mobile apps will work well on all bands, including:

• Low band (below 1GHz), used by LTE.
• Mid band (1Ghz to 6GHz).
• High band (24GHz to 40GHz)

This broad range of bands provides 5G with both coverage and capacity.

Reduced Hardware Limitations

Essentially, 5G apps won’t be affected by a device’s hardware limitations. Specifically, thanks to 5G’s real-time connectivity, developers can integrate personalized user interactions backed up by cloud-based services.

What’s more, 5G is a significantly more reliable and battery-efficient network. This means devices are less likely to disconnect. Accordingly, this opens possibilities for “always-on” connectivity.

How Will This Impact the Development of 5G Apps?

Immersive Technology

Until recently, 4G limitations in the areas of latency and bandwidth have prevented developers from fully incorporating immersive technologies into their mobile applications. However, thanks to 5G’s ability to overcome these boundaries, immersive technologies, like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and 3D projection will now perform flawlessly.

5G apps utilize technology that delivers a deeper and more robust user experience by processing significantly more information at wildly faster speeds. This is a game-changer for mobile app developers, who can now offer 3D features that range across verticals: everything from immersive gaming, to digital shopping, 3D printing, and more.

Smoother Media Streaming

Thanks to 5G’s improved latency, as well as its lighter load on hardware, developers can deliver a media-rich user experience. In fact, the technology has the power to revolutionize video streaming in general, as it supports high-res live streaming at a significantly higher speed than 4G.

A smoother viewing experience thanks to reduced latency and prolonged battery life means developers can include 4K videos in their apps to highlight products and services.

Internet of Things Implementation

Today’s world is saturated with internet of things (IoT) devices. This is largely thanks to smart-devices like Alexa, Siri, and Google Home. 5G offers the opportunity for an even broader application of IoT by supporting the connectivity of wearables, smart-devices, and other sensor-based equipment.

The lower bandwidths of 5G are useful for IoT devices to perform optimally with less power usage. What’s more, developers can combine artificial intelligence and machine learning with the power of 5G to allow their apps to perform ambient computing, making them even smarter.

This opportunity allows for even smarter and more seamless user experiences as more connected devices are adopted by consumers.

Improvement of Cloud Compatibility

The ability to scale a mobile app is of critical importance for its success. And 5G technology supports scalability. The lightning-speed of data transmissions means quicker and more efficient transfer of data to the cloud. This can only encourage the ongoing shift of infrastructure and storage to the cloud.

With this in mind, developers have already started to incorporate cloud accessibility, which further reduces app’s dependency on the hardware of any given device. This, coupled with 5G’s low latency and high performance, will grant users real-time access to their cloud data.

Enhancement of User Experience

One of the key advantages for developers of 5G apps is the reduced load time. The improved connectivity of 5G will reduce load times and make apps more responsive over all. This will inevitably improve user experience by granting apps increased visual clarity and enhancing performance. In essence, developers can inject a lot more functionality into their 5G apps while also heightening UX.

Increased Security & Data Privacy Concerns

A major concern wherever information technology is used is data privacy and security. But 5G has allowed data sharing to blast off at an unprecedented rate. This in turn increases the risk of data-breaches and the loss of personal information. In response to this, it is likely that regulations governing data will get stronger over time, forcing app developers to adapt.

Developers that keep data security in a high-speed, low-latency environment at the forefront of their process from the beginning are likely to weather the changes effectively. Keeping user privacy at the center of business will improve trust and brand loyalty in an easy and organic way.

In Conclusion

5G has only just begun to be implemented. However, as its influence grows, developers will be empowered to tap into the full potential of the technology.

Ultimately, 5G will change the way mobile apps are developed. Developers will have the technological leverage to meet the ever changing demands of their users, now, and beyond 5G. Soon, they’ll be able to create 5G apps that work just as well on smartphones as they do on wearable and IoT devices.

For now, developers and users alike can enjoy lower energy costs, longer battery life, increased speed, and improved performance. Each of these enrich the user experience and lead to better retention rates and higher app revenues.

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People are incredibly selective about mobile applications. If an app is going to gain prime real estate on someone’s phone, it has to earn it. In other words, delivering errorless digital services is mandatory for businesses. UX design needs to be a central priority in every stage of developing a minimum viable product (MVP) to avoid frustrating customers. This is true even if you already have a product and it simply needs an update.

Developing an Effective MVP 

The scope of an MVP can be very subjective based on business needs, industry, competition, product purpose, your existing product, and audience segments. Regardless, today’s most successful mobile products all began as a stripped-down version of the mature applications they are today. What’s more, an MVP is an important way to update existing applications and improve any digital offering. An MVP provides immediate value, quickly, while minimizing development costs and revealing the most suitable direction for further development.

Viability is the principle concept in an MVP. An MVP product, though small, must be able to work successfully. To be specific, an MVP needs to be useful, usable, and delightful. Customers search for valuable mobile services that are intuitive to use and fulfill a purpose in their life. But performance determines first impressions. While an MVP is a condensed product addressing a small subset of customer challenges within the context of a broader business strategy, its functionality and UX design are still critical for gaining and retaining users. 

The Importance of User Experience 

UX is the intuitive, empathetic, and human-centric approach to managing a person’s interaction with technology. UX involves everything that impacts a person’s perceptions, interactions, and feelings before, during, and after their interaction with a digital product or service. 

In today’s society, digital experiences, particularly mobile experiences, are entirely ingrained in day-to-day activities; so much so, people are often unaware of how small the gap is between their digital and real-world actions. Digital services are officially an extension of subconscious human behavior. The statistics on the matter from AppDynamics’ 2021 App Attention Index survey are compelling: 

• 85% of consumer respondents say applications and digital services have become a critical part of how they go about their lives.
• 83% of respondents say the availability of digital services has made some activities more accessible and easier to fit around other commitments.
• 83% of people report having encountered problems with applications and digital services in the past 12 months and are now far more likely to take action when they do.

This massive cultural and societal shift towards mobile preference has set high expectations for how people relate, transact, and have conversations with businesses. As a result, companies need to reevaluate existing approaches to customer experience, which is now a mobile-driven relationship.

The Impact of Poor UX

The 2021 App Attention Index survey proves that the quality, performance, and personalization of a company’s mobile services drive most buying decisions. What’s more, in the face of performance and usability issues, people experience stress, frustration, anger, and anxiety. Specifically, the number of consumers likely to switch to an alternative app when they encounter problems has risen to 96%. These types of reactions are disastrous for companies, mainly because 93% will go on to tell others about their negative experience. Customers are unforgiving and are becoming increasingly inflexible when they encounter mobile app problems. 

Despite these deterring and unnerving statistics, companies can’t ignore mobile business channels. Reaping the benefits of mobile app development starts with devoted research into a mobile product’s end-user. That means understanding how they think, what they like, what they hate, what they find valuable, and, more importantly – why. Effectively learning about customers requires a different way of thinking: a way of thinking that reframes complex business problems from the customer’s perspective to identify what’s important to them. For this reason, the design thinking process is hugely beneficial for helping businesses create a customer experience that consistently generates new business value. 

What is Design Thinking?

Design thinking is an iterative approach to problem-solving that helps businesses continuously reposition and think critically about business problems in human-centric ways. Design thinking encourages companies to think differently about business goals and whether or not they’re attainable. More importantly, design thinking prompts business stakeholders to analyze their business strategy and how it will translate into a product strategy. Practicing design thinking also offers many strategic advantages and deliverables. The entire process creates innovative solutions to prototype and test. It also helps companies set product goals, understand business outcomes, map out user journeys, prioritize MVP features, and create a future-oriented product roadmap. 

The Five Stages of Design Thinking 

The design thinking process covers five phases: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test. The framework is iterative, flexible, and involves the collaboration of product teams and actual customers to create mobile products inspired by how users think, feel, and act. 

1. The Empathize Stage

Building customer empathy involves a deep understanding of the problems and realities of the people you are designing for.

Good UX design leaves a lasting impression. Many companies struggle to develop an MVP that evokes meaning and forms a connection with customers. What’s more, many products in the market are aesthetically pleasing and usable, but still lack purpose. It’s essential to determine what impression the product is leaving with its users. This distinction is the difference between an app that customers return to and one they uninstall. Empathizing with customers is essential for creating this connection. As much as possible, business stakeholders need to step outside their frame of reference and understand the customer to develop a mobile solution that stands out in the market. This is true for both future applications and existing products.

Building customer empathy is the first stage in the design thinking process. IDEO’s Human-Centered Design Toolkit defines empathy in design thinking as a deep understanding of the problems and realities of the people you are designing for. The empathy stage involves learning about customer challenges and discovering their unexpressed needs to explain their digital behavior better. That means observing and engaging with the people the product is intended for and experiencing their physical environment. If you’re redeveloping an existing app, you probably already have mounds of user data. It’s time to reevaluate that information.

Through empathy, product teams can share a similar perspective to the customer. Empathy also helps product teams think above and beyond their assumptions and recognize that different people have individual needs and expectations. By practicing empathy and adopting the perspective of the end-user, product teams can extrapolate user needs more accurately. 

2. The Define Stage 

The second stage of the design thinking process focuses on defining a relevant and actionable problem statement. This guides the strategic design direction of the project. Problem statements require product teams to compound all user research findings from the empathize stage in the design thinking process. 

Concerning developing an MVP, the product should focus on a single or limited set of the problems customers experience. Honing in on a small set of problems will help establish a concentrated problem statement. This approach enables the product team to set specific success criteria and clear objectives for the next stage of the design thinking process: Ideation.

Problem Statement

An appropriate problem statement needs to be: 

1. Customer-centric. Problem statements are written entirely from the customer’s frame of reference. A good problem statement is based on factual insights from user research. Problem statements do not focus on technical requirements, monetary returns, or feature-sets; instead, problem statements involve understanding a challenge customers are facing. 
2. General enough for creativity. A problem statement can’t be restrictive. The problem definition stage is meant to encourage innovation and allow product teams to explore several creative solutions to the problem.  
3. Precise enough to be manageable. It’s essential to balance creative freedom and practicality. If a problem statement is too general, the task can become intimidating. Problem statements need to be concise enough for the project to be manageable. 

Empathy mapping is a common tactic for creating a problem definition. An empathy map has four quadrants that represent four essential traits that the customers demonstrated, expressed, or possessed during observational research. These four quadrants reference what customers say, do, think, and feel. Documenting what customers said and did is straightforward; however, understanding what customers thought and felt requires meticulous observation and adequate experience. It’s necessary to pay close attention to subtle behaviors, body language, tone of voice, suggestions, and conversations from observational studies to collect the information to complete an empathy map. With an empathy map, product teams can better understand unexpressed or indirect reactions to a product’s design, which helps create intuitive experiences beyond a customer’s expectations.

Problem definition is collecting and organizing customer research data from the empathize stage to accurately interpret the challenges customers face when using the product and their emotional reactions to the UX design.

3. The Ideation Stage 

The ideation stage in design thinking is when product teams throw ideas around. The goal is to produce as many ideas as possible and inspire new ways of thinking. From there, the team can narrow the list down to the most realistic, high-quality, and innovative ideas. 

During ideation, the net is cast wide to get past the apparent methods for solving customer problems and invent more refined, logical, and satisfying solutions to the challenges impacting the customer’s impression of the product. Overall, ideation helps product teams:  

• Ask the right questions and innovate
• Create quantity and variety in potential solutions 
• Identify solutions that are not immediately apparent 
• Combine multiple perspectives, strengths, and experiences in a team setting 

 It’s crucial to encourage unrestricted free thinking during ideation. The purpose is to aim for quantity before tapering the list to find quality. What has worked in the past? What isn’t working for your existing applications? Now is the time for out-of-the-box brainstorming.

4. The Prototyping Stage

Prototyping allows enough time to make changes to critical design issues before the product reaches development, and it becomes too late (and too expensive) to make major changes to the UX.

Mobile app prototyping is another form of user research used to validate a product’s strategic design direction. A prototype is a preliminary visualization of a working product. In mobile app development, prototypes build an understanding of the product’s look and feel. This, in turn, helps test how customers use and react to the overall UX design. Using a prototype for usability testing allows for enough time to make changes to critical design issues before the product reaches development, and it becomes too late (and too expensive) to make major changes to the UX.

1:10:100 Rule

Consider the image above; if you only start testing on an “almost-finished” product, you risk finding serious issues too late to make changes. Prototype research is the mitigator – you’ll spend less if you do upfront research. The closer you get to launch, the more expensive changes are. Conduct prototyping research early and iteratively to ensure the design is easy and enjoyable to use, as well as to align all strategic design decisions to user needs and safeguard the project’s ROI.

The mobile app prototyping stage helps product teams learn how users interact with the “rough draft” of a product to uncover new solutions or determine whether the existing solution is successful. What is learned from a prototype allow the product team to reframe one or several of the problems identified from the previous design thinking stages. As a result, everyone on the project has a more accurate understanding of the challenges users face when using the product in the context of their life.

Mobile app prototypes take abstract ideas and turn them into a tangible product. The whole process forces product teams to slow down and think about the product from different perspectives. Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, explains that prototypes “slow us down to speed us up. By taking the time to prototype our ideas, we avoid costly mistakes such as becoming too complex too early and sticking with a weak idea for too long.”

5. The Testing Stage

To develop successful mobile products, the testing stage in design thinking should be happening throughout the entire process. With that said, a majority of testing coincides with the prototyping stage. In the design thinking process, testing involves collecting user feedback from the product prototype. If done correctly, testing feeds into every step of design thinking. Testing helps to:

1. Continue to empathize with customers. 
2. Produce insights that reframe the definition of the problem statement. 
3. Perpetuate ideation. 
4. Identify new ways to prototype the solution. 

By the testing stage, the entire design thinking process comes full circle. Design thinking is fundamentally a cyclical activity where product teams continually review and refine the product concept, returning to the beginning of the process several times until the concept meets business objectives and customer needs. Overall, the process helps identify and fix problems early on in the project when it’s far less expensive to make changes. 

Collaboration is Key for Developing an MVP 

Delivering a high-quality user experience with design thinking is in no way a linear process. The development cycle involves so many connected moving parts that in the absence of collaboration, the final product could fall short of ROI expectations. Adopting a collaborative approach to developing an MVP with design thinking is easily the most effective way to ensure the final product meets customer deutsche porno needs.

The first step is to break down any departmental silos that can negatively impact the chances of building a seamless user experience into the product. An open flow of knowledge and frequent communication is crucial for setting goals and mapping the user journey towards those goals. Collectively, a team has more knowledge, experience, and insight than an individual.

The goal is not entirely about building or updating a piece of software; rather, it should be geared towards delivering a solution to customers. In return, those customers will view the product as an essential component of their daily lives. To provide a genuinely useful application, insight from those who build apps is vital; application developers have the best understanding of the potential that software holds. At the same time, developers must have a 360-degree understanding of what the customer is trying to achieve. Product owners, developers, designers, and architects who understand the entire customer journey can better frame the product to meet customer needs. A shared understanding allows every stakeholder to identify hiccups in the user experience before the product reaches completion, and can hash out solutions to problems that affect every moving part within the cycle

The Verdict on Developing an MVP with Design Thinking 

More than ever, it is imperative to think critically about an MVP’s UX design and all the ways it can make a positive impression on customers. Design thinking is essential for transforming a product vision into actual deliverables. The entire process goes a long way towards delivering a product that is truly meaningful to customers. As a result, the final xxx product will address relevant pain points and provides an experience that retains long-term customers.

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The truth is, it’s nearly impossible to extract one discipline from the other. While the UX is a combination of tasks focused on the optimization of a mobile app for effective and enjoyable use, the user interface design is its counterpart – the look and feel, the presentation, and overall interactivity of a product.

UX design helps users accomplish functional tasks across platforms and services. Meanwhile,  UI design consists of compelling and aesthetically pleasing interfaces for user interaction. UX and UI designers work in the same realm and on the same projects, but apply separate skills at various stages of development.

Let’s get deeper into the weeds to discover the differences.

What is User Experience?

“User experience” (UX) is exactly what it sounds like. UX describes the overall experience users have when interacting with your product. Cognitive scientist Don Norman is credited with coining the phrase in the early 1990s while working at Apple. He defines UX as:

“User experience” encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interactions with the company, its services, and its products.

That’s a fairly broad definition, but basically UX deals with the emotional experience a user has with a product; design decisions should be based solely on the needs and wants of the user. That means a user’s experience isn’t just about the practical usage of an app or system, but their overall experience with your brand, from start to finish.

UX, or UXD, involves everything that influences a user’s perception and interaction with a product. In technical terms, UX is the practical, experiential, meaningful, affective, and valuable characteristics of human-machine interaction. Mobile UX encompasses the user’s perceptions and feelings before, during, and after their interaction with an app.

All that means that a UX designer’s primary concern is to address the feel of a product for a set of users. To accomplish this, UX designers explore different options to solve user-specific pain points and provide users with a valuable solution. Ultimately, products with good UX are user-friendly and straightforward.

Why is UX Design Important?

Overall, a mobile app’s UX impacts how users perceive the product. Users search for apps that provide value, are easy to use and will help them fulfill a goal. The UX determines if a user will return to your app or if they will delete it altogether. If the UX is bad, you might even be in for a poor review.

According to UX Designer Nick Babich, “The best products do two things well: features and details. Features are what draw people to your product. Details are what keep them there.”

For this reason, UX designers generally focus on:

• Product structure, such as navigation, user journeys, and flow.
• User, competitor, and market analysis research.
• Testing with low- and high-fidelity prototypes.
• Wireframes, hierarchy, and content layout designs.

What Makes A Great User Experience?

Successful mobile apps all have one thing in common: they benefit their users. If a person is going to use an app repeatedly, the product needs to not only be useful, but offer ongoing value. Creating an amazing UX begins with following the design thinking methodology and establishing an extensive understanding of the target users’ lives – and unmet needs. 

Design thinking is at the core of successful mobile app development. Throughout the design thinking methodology, UX designers conduct research to either validate or invalidate initial product ideas to guide development.

It’s important to note that the UX encompasses much more than how a user feels about a product or service. It incorporates a strategic understanding of the product’s business model and the processes clients use. It also consists of understanding the broader context in which users interact and engage. A successful UX design creates solutions that meet the needs of the client and users, while ultimately working within the bounds of the technological platforms.

Why is Design Thinking Important?

At its core, the design thinking methodology supports innovation by observing and considering multiple solutions to a single problem. The fundamental principles of design thinking assert that a user-centric approach to product development encourages innovation. This, in turn, leads to market differentiation and competitive advantage. 

User experience research is an integral part of developing a successful mobile app. Before the development process even begins, it’s important to understand how the UX and UI will work together to solve user pain points. The design thinking methodology is a formalized framework for processing user data and creating appropriate design solutions to address their real world needs.

What is Design Thinking Methodology

The first stage of any successful mobile app development must be Design and Discovery. This step is constructed to cover the five fundamental stages of design thinking: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. This ensures that the design thinking methodology is iterative and involves the collaboration of both designers and users to create mobile products inspired by how real users think and feel.

Source: Nielsen Norman Group

The UX and design thinking methodology identifies the purpose of the mobile product, business objectives, and customer needs and pain points. Critically, it also identifies how the product will resolve those challenges. A design thinking engagement will prioritize product features and create the user journeys necessary to create a prototype. This is then validated – or invalidated – through testing. Only after both the business model and unique value proposition have been validated by real users can the product move into development.

Finally, the next step is to design the user interface, which defines the interactions by adding color and visuals to the UX design. This gives the user the clues that they will need to successfully navigate through the app, like registering as a new user. In most cases, UX comes before the UI.

“User Experience” Is Not The Same As “Usability”

Unfortunately, user experience and usability are often confused in the context of mobile app development despite being very different fields. As we’ve discussed, UX addresses how a user feels, while usability is concerned with the user-friendliness and efficiency of the interface.

That said, usability does play a major role in UX. Usability has a profound impact on how a user navigates through an app. Successful mobile apps provide logical and pleasant usability.

What is User Interface Design?

Despite popular belief, user interface design isn’t simply about buttons and navigation menus. Rather, it’s about the interactions between users and the app. In fact, the UI isn’t only about how a product looks, it’s how it works.

Where will you place the buttons and call-to-action for your users to quickly understand the flow of the app? Does a particular interface even need buttons? If so, what is the purpose of those buttons? For an excellent user interface, you need to provide users with the actions required to learn how the app will help them accomplish a goal.

When it comes to user goals, the aim of user interface designers is to make the users’ interactions with the app as simple and effective as possible. This is the essence of user-centered design.

Why is UI Design Important?

UI designers are most concerned with the visual elements, how they are laid out, and how the product will look overall. This plays a significant role in influencing the emotional connection a user has with the app.

Of course, there is still debate over what sort of UI will establish a positive UX for a product. Many people strongly believe a visually appealing interface works best, while others argue for a simple UI. The truth is, trends change and you’ll need adequate user research to discover which approach will work best for your users.

What Makes A Great User Interface?

While the UX may not be as apparent to the user, the interface design is the first thing they see. That means it will have an immediate impact on their perception of the app. The UI designer’s responsibility is to enhance the brand within the interface. In the end, UI design helps guide users through the interface using visual aids.

These are a few elements of a great UI:

• Clarity: The interface avoids confusion and ambiguity by making everything clear through language and visuals. Mobile apps with good UI usually don’t need extensive onboarding to show the user how the app works.
• Familiarity: Many users like to see familiar features, buttons, or calls-to-action. Familiarity includes common symbols, icons, or colors to convey a message, such as red to exit or delete. Even if someone uses an interface for the first time, certain elements can be familiar. 
• Responsiveness: This includes speed, as an excellent user interface should not lag or feel slow. Providing feedback when a screen is loading will also enhance the UI by keeping the user informed on what’s happening. For example, you might provide purchase confirmation or inform them of data processing.
• Consistency: Keeping your interface consistent across your application is important because it allows users to recognize usage patterns. Once your users learn how certain parts of the interface work, they can apply this knowledge to new areas and features.
• Aesthetics: While it’s not necessary to make a user interface attractive for it to function correctly, making something look appealing will make the app more enjoyable.

Closing Thoughts

When you get down to it, once you’ve got your usability right, it’s your interface’s personality that will keep users coming back. People may be drawn to a product because of its striking design, but no matter how it looks, they will only stick around if it helps them fulfill their goals.

Although UX and UI designers have different responsibilities, they work together to build a great product in which the user forms a connection. A mobile app that solves user pain points, is clear and concise, and makes the product pleasurable for the user will thrive in the market.

While UX design principles  remain relatively static, the trends and techniques are constantly changing. In this post, we will identify and discuss eight key UX design trends we predict will make significant strides in 2022.

UX Design Trends for 2022

AR & VR

Over the last several years, we’ve seen a shift towards augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) in UX design trends. The evidence is everywhere, from the Microsoft HoloLens, to IKEA Place, Apple’s LiDAR scanners, and the rise of the Metaverse.

AR and VR technology allows users to integrate digital components into their real-world experiences. What’s more, this trend may be ideal for a wide range of industries. For example, eCommerce already uses AR to allow customers to “try on” clothing at home.

AR and VR have the unique ability to engage with a user’s needs in real-time and take their engagement to the next level. Businesses in media and entertainment, travel, science, health, real estate, education, and more, have an incredible opportunity to add AR or VR to their UX design this year.

Voice User Interface Interaction

Another major UX design trend on the rise is voice user interfaces (VUIs). Although the technology behind VUIs has been around since at least the ‘80s, it’s only recently broken into the mainstream. In fact, according to data from Statista, 20% of users from western countries reported that they use a digital voice assistant several times a day.

However, a unique set of challenges will hinder a complete voice take-over.

Accessibility issues are the primary concern. Current voice technologies have difficulty accurately identifying instruction when heavy accents or background noise is present. Secondly, a VUI allows actions to be executed based on spoken commands. Changing interfaces require UX designers to abandon old techniques and mindsets for designing mobile app experiences. While VUIs won’t entirely take over mobile experiences, the technology shows significant potential for enabling further advancements in consumer AI technologies.

3D & Advanced Animation

Today’s mobile devices are equipped with performance hardware that can handle animation and 3D more efficiently than ever before. Advanced animation and 3D can make user interactions more alluring and exciting with the proper approach. With the right implementation, this trend can take your app far beyond the aesthetic “wow-factor.”

3D and advanced animations deliver a ton of data – from explaining state changes to confirming actions and even adding a little rhythm to user interactions.

As mobile devices improve, mobile app developers can create more and more advanced animations. These motions should become an essential and well-planned part of your brand’s positioning.

Even Deeper Personalization

2021 marked a substantial shift towards more profound and sophisticated personalization in mobile UX. As artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) continue to take giant strides in understanding user behavior and interaction, mobile products will become increasingly personalized. When it comes to UX design, the key is to design something flexible for the individual. Functionality and in-app content should be defined by user data, such as location, purchase behavior, online communities, events, and personal calendar.

Brands such as Netflix already do this, for example, by curating custom suggestions based on previous watching behaviors. These suggestions are unique to the user and provide a service unique to them. UX designers need to tap into AI and ML personalization opportunities to supply variable content where appropriate.

Dark Themes

One of the most surefire UX design trends for 2022 is the dark theme. Although this trend isn’t exactly new – a 2020 Android Authority poll found 82% of their readers used dark themes when possible – but now more and more companies are rolling out dark themes.

Why? Not only is the dark background and light font sleek, crisp, and modern, it provides two critical advantages to UX: it improves battery life (especially with OLED screens) and reduces blue-light exposure, which can help minimize eye-strain and promote better sleep.

Accessibility & Inclusive Design

When it comes to accessibility and inclusion, the University of Cambridge has got it exactly right:

“Every design decision has the potential to include or exclude customers. Inclusive design emphasizes the contribution that understanding user diversity makes to informing these decisions, and thus to including as many people as possible. User diversity covers variation in capabilities, needs and aspirations.”

In 2022, UX designers need to cater to as broad an audience as possible. Each design decision can either make a user’s life easier, or make them feel left out. That means taking into consideration potential users’ needs and points of view. Nielsen Norman Group recommends:

• Using ALT texts for images for people with visual disabilities.
• Creating image maps.
• Encoding information with relative size texts.
• Turning off sound should not affect the website UX.
• Website or app elements should not require precise tapping.

But this trend goes beyond accessibility for all users’ abilities. Every user is different, and you’ll need to keep their perspectives in mind. Consider default avatar images, for example. If an individual enters “female” in the gender field, they’ll likely end up with a default avatar of a young person with long hair and feminine features. But not every female-identifying user will relate to that image.

To do this right, think of people in more abstract terms. Rather than using traditional gendered images, try more symbolic avatars. Your copy should match this idea as well. For example, go for gender-neutral terms like “friends” or “users.”

Data Visualization

Data visualization, the art of putting important data into a visual context, has become both invaluable and expected by users. This is thanks to its ability to improve how users interact with apps, and can help create a more trusting relationship.

The clearest and most obvious example of this done successfully is Spotify’s yearly “Spotify Wrapped.” If you’re not familiar with this feature, it’s simply a compilation of data on the artists and songs each user has listened to most over the last year. But Wrapped isn’t simply a spreadsheet with boring numbers; the information is presented in an engaging and dynamic visual format that tells a story.

Dynamic and personalized experiences like Spotify Wrapped do more than present data in easily digestible ways (like charts), and instead create a narrative around each user’s data. This narrative is fantastic for driving engagement, communicating company values, and bringing in new leads.

Micro-Interactions

Micro-interactions are another popular UX design trend that’s sure to see continued growth throughout 2022. From the “Like” button on social media platforms, to innovative scroll bars, micro-interactions are visual or audio effects that help users navigate your app. Bets10

While each of these design elements are rather small, they can have a massive impact on user experience. Micro-interactions help create the atmosphere or mood needed, or bring users’ focus to specific areas of the interface. In a nutshell, they make things fresh and more interesting.

The one major pitfall involved with micro-interactions comes into play when you’re too focused on being trendy, especially in terms of color pallets or animations. Keep in mind that micro-interactions should explain your app’s functionality and help your users navigate. The most useful micro-interactions include:

• Animated page transitions.
• Animated button tapping.
• Colorful, relevant information presentations.
• Animated content scrolling.
• Loading and processing visualizations.
• Tactile reviews.

The State of UX Design in Mobile App Development

UX design trends continue to take on a less traditional approach as designers adapt to changes in user interactions, preferences, and behaviors and physical changes to the very devices we use. As technology changes, design must also adapt to provide users with a broader range of options so that they can find the ones which fit their specific needs and wishes. User experience encompasses all aspects of the end user’s interaction with a company, its services, and its products. Keeping an eye on the UX design trends listed above will help UX designers stay ahead of the curve and ensure they continue to provide their users with the tools they require to use a product to its fullest capabilities.

“Good design, when it’s done well, becomes invisible. It’s only when it’s done poorly that we notice it.”

Jared Spool

With today’s exceedingly competitive mobile app market, it’s more important than ever to stand out and develop a unique brand identity through user experience (UX) design. While most companies recognize the value of mobile app design as a central driver for long-term success, they often don’t understand how to use UX design to open new lines of business through mobile and create a competitive advantage. 

Many people confuse UX with user interface (UI) design, however, there’s much more to UX than visuals. UX Designers consider the who, what, why, and how of mobile product use. In mobile app development, it is critically important to ensure the product’s character and content matter translates through technology to offer a seamless, fluid, and meaningful experience. Otherwise, the product will fail to meet the objectives in all areas of a mobile business structure.

The misunderstanding surrounding UX stems from the overlap of skill-sets and tools involved in both UX and UI design, as well as several common misconceptions about what UX is and how it fits into the mobile app development process. This article will list nine common UX mistakes to avoid in mobile app development and how to use the principles of design thinking to keep UX considerations at the forefront of the entire product lifecycle. 

UX Design Mistake #1: Seeing UX as One Person’s Responsibility 

UX isn’t just the responsibility of one department or an individual designer. The whole product team should be involved in the mobile app design process. Specifically, everyone involved in the project should understand the common goal and product vision, which they deliver collectively. 

It’s important to ideate with every stakeholder during product definition. Making design decisions collectively helps ensure the final product closely resembles the company’s ideas and concepts, while simultaneously meeting specific project goals. Collectively owning a product’s UX design is important for several key reasons: 

1. Stakeholders can help collect all the information about the project’s strategic direction. 
2. Involving stakeholders can help ensure research makes the most impact. 
3. Working with the right people establishes support and secures funding for the time and resources for each necessary design iteration. 
4. You’ll know you haven’t done the same research twice. 

When it comes to UX design, the people involved should ideally create a cross-disciplinary team with a variety of specializations. With that said, it’s important for each team member to think outside of their discipline to create meaningful collaborations. Often, individuals with specific knowledge about particular business functions will solve problems on their own level of experience. It’s very easy for IT, engineering, product management, marketing, and sales departments to make decisions and view challenges through a departmental lens. Involving everyone – upper management, product managers, marketing, developers, designers, and clients – will help examine problems in greater detail from several perspectives and backgrounds. More importantly, cross-disciplinary collaboration helps replace self-referential design decisions with more holistically framed solutions.

UX Design Mistake #2: Only Considering UX at the Beginning of Development

UX design is an ongoing effort. Great mobile experiences follow the five stages of design thinking: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. These stages, however, are not necessarily sequential and can often operate in tandem, repeating in an iterative cycle. The stages of the design thinking process should be considered as separate roles that advance the design’s entirety. The end goal is to arrive at a cohesive understanding of the product’s purpose and audience.

Essentially, the entire process establishes expectations for the mobile product. Designing a great mobile experience starts with empathy which reveals solutions to user pain points that may not be immediately apparent. The process further defines the product by framing and reframing the perceived problem to gain perspective and explore as many potential solutions as possible through rapid prototyping. Developing a prototype is a cyclical activity where product teams continually review and refine the product concept, returning to the beginning of the process several times until a desirable, feasible and viable concept exists.

UX Design Mistake #3: Not Empathizing With Your Users 

Good UX leaves a lasting impression. Many companies struggle when it comes to providing meaning and forming a connection with users. Meaningful products have personal significance and resonate with users’ needs while aligning with their values. Many products in the market are aesthetically pleasing and are usable but still lack meaning. How are you connecting with your user? Ask yourself what impression you’re leaving with your users. This will be the difference between an app your users return to and one they uninstall. Empathizing with users is an essential component of UX design. As much as possible, designers need to step outside their frame of reference and become the user if they’re going to create a mobile solution that stands out in the market. 

UX Design Mistake #4: Designing For Yourself and Not the User

Development teams can often form strong opinions about a product. Good UX designers separate their personal preferences from user preferences. It’s important to understand that you are designing for a core set of users with specific needs and wants. This user-centric design approach should be practiced throughout the entire development process so that the app doesn’t evolve to fit the needs of the people creating it.

UX Design Mistake #5: Following Your Competition Too Closely

What works for one company might not work for another. Instead of imitating your competition, learn from them and combine your learnings with innovation to establish a competitive edge. When you follow suit to your competition, you aren’t providing anything new for your users. 

There is no mobile app cheat sheet, (but there is this checklist). Certainly, there are sources of inspiration to draw from, but trends that work for other companies may end up outdating your app down the road. Instead, analyze what trends are working, then apply this insight to suit your business and user’s needs; you can improve, customize, and build from this foundation. As with all products, research will make for a stronger experience overall. 

UX Design Mistake # 6: Overwhelming Your Users With Too Much Content

Information overload is notorious for ruining a design, but following by the principles of design thinking you can dramatically reduce confusion. Parking signs, for example, are a prime example of information overload. Most of the time, parking signs need to display a lot of complex information in a small space which makes them very hard to process at a glance.

Source

Imagine you’re looking for a place to park on this road on a Friday afternoon around 4 p.m. Can you park here? What you think would be a simple question actually requires a lot of mental processing. Designing a mobile UX deals with a lot of the same problems from this parking sign example; often, mobile apps need to communicate a lot of information within a small amount of space. 

This particular parking scenario can be fixed by adopting a user-centric approach to design. Drivers simply want a yes or no answer to their problem – can I park here?

Source: Nikki Sylianteng

By using visuals instead of text, and making use of conventional understanding (green for yes and red for no), people can instantly process the information from the parking sign. On a Friday afternoon at 4 p.m., parking is allowed. 

Use content to guide the user through your app, providing value along the way. You don’t need to cram everything onto the first screen. It overloads users with information, in turn, frustrating them. Users like the interactivity of mobile app design because they enjoy the satisfaction of self-initiated discovery. If a mobile app is going to be useful, it needs to be simple. 

On the other hand, don’t omit important information. Be concise and intuitive but not sparse. Draw users in with a question, bold statement, interactive element, or anything that invites the user to participate and engage. Good content is a crucial aspect of a good UX, so it’s important to develop an effective content strategy.

UX Design Mistake #7: Having an Overly Complex UI Design 

Good UX doesn’t always have a fancy, intricate design.  Complex UI design can take away from the user experience if there are too many distractions or confusing call-to-actions. Instead of including elements that lack purpose, simplify with more meaning. Good design can be elegant without all of the intricacies. 

That doesn’t mean that large-scale animation doesn’t have a place. While in a game they are expected, in an everyday app, they should be used sparingly and to celebrate a special event or a time-consuming process. Some examples of when to use animations are for loading indicators or pull to refresh.

UX Design Mistake #8: Including Too Many Features

Rather than including too many elements and features, understand your brand’s strengths. When you visit a restaurant with a menu that has every type of cuisine, it can overwhelm you. While it may seem beneficial to cater to everyone’s needs, it’s disjointed and puts into question the restaurant’s ability to truly specialize in what they’re good at.

This is just as relevant to brand identity. If your app includes everything for all types of demographics, you won’t please anyone. Instead of establishing loyal users, you’ll end up frustrating them. Not only is this bad for user retention but the perception of your brand as well. Find the unique value proposition that will give you the competitive edge you need.

UX Design Mistake #9: Confusing UI with UX 

The UX & UI are different. Mobile app design concepts are continually evolving. As the nature of the work changes with technology so does the way people describe it. 

It’s nearly impossible to extricate the UI from the UX and vice versa. You can’t work on one design concept without considering the other. UX design is so subtle and natural that it seems obvious and effortless for the user. The amount of analysis involved is invisible to the end-user. It is the foundation or the structure of the app. UI design, on the other hand, consists of compelling and aesthetically pleasing interfaces with which the user interacts with. It is the exterior. Knowing when and how to utilize both of these design disciplines will be crucial to the success of your app.

These 9 mistakes can derail projects from maximizing their impact on business outcomes. Further, understanding how to overcome common UX mistakes will encourage flexibility and breakthrough perceived limitations. When you eliminate the barriers, these common UX mistakes impose, the result is a better end product that delights your users.

Using Design Thinking to Solve UX Design Mistakes

Design thinking is an iterative process that supports UX innovation. The process aims to interpret users, validate product assumptions, reposition pain points and create solutions to prototype and test. Design thinking is particularly beneficial for solving poorly defined problems by observing and considering multiple perspectives or solutions. The core principle of design thinking asserts that a user-centric approach to experience design encourages innovation, which leads to market differentiation and competitive advantage. 

The design thinking framework is cyclical, flexible and involves the collaboration between product teams and users to create mobile products inspired by how real users think and feel. By practicing design thinking, product development teams can identify the core purpose of a mobile app, its business objectives, user pain points, and more importantly, the most human-centric approach to resolving user challenges. 

In recent years, it has become more consequential for businesses to refine the skills necessary to identify and act on rapid market changes and preferential behavior of customers. The world of business in more interconnected and complex than ever before. Design thinking offers a formalized framework to maneuver through changing conditions with a human-centric perspective, and ultimately discover new ways to meet user demand. 

Design thinking has become somewhat of a buzzword in recent years, but its popularity can be attributed to the prosperity of many high-profile, global enterprises – disruptors like Google, Apple, Spotify, Airbnb, and Uber, for example, have all leveraged the process to prominent effect. When used properly, businesses can follow suit and tap into an entirely innovative way of thinking to generate authentic connections with customers through problem-solving. 

Learn more about how our customized Design Thinking Sessions can help you 

9 Common UX Design Mistakes Infographic

To survive in today’s app market, enterprises must invest in websites, apps, and services rooted in exceptional user experience. Creating that experience involves practicing design thinking and begins by establishing an extensive understanding of your target users’ lives and unmet needs.

The best way to go about gaining that understanding is simply by conducting user experience research. Unfortunately, for many companies, especially those on a limited development budget, pushing out a working product may be a higher priority than conducting user research. However, that can prove to be a fatal mistake. Not taking the time to do at least some user research to inform your product’s design may have a crippling, detrimental effect on your product’s success.

In this article, we will go over various low-cost, simple user experience research methods and discuss ways to use this research to improve the user experience for a successful customer-centered mobile app.

Why Is UX Research So Important?

A mobile app’s UX influences how users perceive the product. Users search for apps that provide value, are easy to use, and help them fulfill a goal. The UX ultimately determines if a user will return to your app or delete it altogether, possibly giving it a poor review. According to UX Designer Nick Babich, “The best products do two things well: features and details. Features are what draw people to your product. Details are what keep them there.”

The startling truth is that 25 percent of users stop using an app just after one use. Why? Although there are many reasons, the most prominent one is not finding the immediate value in the app. User experience research not only helps UX designers to better  understand the likes and dislikes of their audience but also helps them either validate or invalidate initial product ideas to guide the development of the product. If done correctly, user experience research will reveal different mindsets, motivations, pain points, and behaviors of a targeted user group. These key factors ultimately decide if a product will be successful or not.

Types of Research You Can Conduct 

Numerous methodologies have proven to be effective in producing quality results. Often the methods used are split into two categories: qualitative and quantitative. 

• Qualitative — observational findings, emotions, and human behaviors.
• Quantitative — metrics and actual data.

Each type of data will help you gain insights that will help you throughout the development process. For example, the qualitative data you gather will help identify new opportunities and trends. Quantitative research provides businesses with numerical and statistical information, which can be hugely influential in convincing stakeholders to buy in and invest in a project or concept.

Here are some examples of the data you might collect:

• Qualitative — During the user testing, some participants had to re-read the first paragraph on the landing page before they understood the message.
• Quantitative — The average time spent on the checkout page is 17.3 seconds.

Below are some common user experience research methods:

Usability Testing 

Use this methodology when you have a product or a prototype ready, and you need to test it with users. Before you launch it, it’s good to get constructive feedback from your users/potential users and see if they are stuck somewhere or don’t understand something.

A/B Testing 

Use this research method to analyze what options are most popular amongst your target audience. You can give your users two interfaces to try out, for example, and depending upon their preference; you can choose to move forward with the one they connect with most.

Survey/Questionnaire 

Preliminary surveys and questionnaires are straightforward and provide a critical channel for collecting data from potential users. By answering a set of questions, businesses can learn their target audience values, expectations, pain points, etc. This research method is cost-effective and can return large amounts of data. Furthermore, researchers can even ask why users decided to use a competitor’s app and gain insight into how they found it and what motivated them to continue to use that particular product. 

Behavioral Analysis

Behavioral analysis is essential to understanding user traffic patterns. Often, behavior analysis is conducted alongside a survey to develop a clearer picture of why users are interacting the way they are. It is conducted by installing software on a participant’s device that will track how they navigate an app and how they use it.

Competitive Analysis

This research method is not only easy to conduct but is cost-effective and can provide great insights from a potential user base. For this research method, businesses need to identify their competitors and evaluate their mobile products for strengths and weaknesses to determine what prospective users think when using a competitor’s product. To do this, a researcher can provide users with their competitor’s app and gather data on how they interact with it.

Observational/Field Studies

A lab study places a user and a prototype of a mobile app in an environment where interactions between the two are observed. To gather meaningful information, this environment needs to resemble real-life situations to replicate how a user would actually use the product in their daily lives, and further evaluate whether the user can use the product as it is designed. Lab studies also allow researchers to interact with the subject and ask questions to gain further insights. 

Journal/Diary 

This research method involves having a user write down when, how, why, and other observations each time they use the app. This helps businesses and developers answer; when do users use our app? And in what contexts do they use our apps? This type of research also provides businesses with honest feedback that can reveal areas for improvement. 

5 Ways to conduct better user experience research

Ensure research insights are actionable

Understand the actionable part of your research:

• Does your team have a budget to take action? If the answer is no, your role might be to make a case for why more budget is necessary.
• Are there core features that your target customers must have?
• Are you timing the studies, so your research results have maximum impact?

Start your process with finding needs and gaps vs. selling solutions. In this age of information overload, too many meetings and cluttered inboxes, lead with ways for your audience to empathize, prioritize, and take action.

Good research should narrow the gap to the customer

There are ways to make the process of learning from research more personal: you can add a mix of real stories along with data, invite as many cross-discipline team members to be involved (while being practical about their time), and avoid the dreaded information dump at the end of a process by giving bite-sized updates.

Good presentation design matters. The presentation design shouldn’t overwhelm the information. Instead, incorporate the right image, visual or video clip rather than using a page full of text. Smaller chunks of data can make findings more palatable. It’s easy to get derailed by subjective opinions during share-outs (ex. I hate this shade of blue, I liked the old way better, etc.). Focus discussion around the customer, the hypothesis, and how well a proposed solution ultimately adds value to the customer.

Anticipate that things will go wrong

First, determine the right questions — what can feasibly be answered or can’t be answered with research and given method. Second, remember to over-recruit participants, assuming there will be no-shows, and that some people might just not be a good fit for the study even with a careful screener. Be wary of scope creep from too many stakeholders.

With any live session, there may be issues with call quality, connection, or video. Try to have a backup for prototypes, such as a simple slideshow presentation. Make sure to pilot the sessions as it’s easy to miss things once you’ve begun feeling comfortable with the content.

Moderate with the audience in mind

Ramp up your question difficulty, to help someone get adjusted to the conversation.

The experience of sharing feedback on a product is not always natural. You have to speak your thoughts aloud to a stranger (who might be rapidly taking notes), sometimes over the internet. Your role as a researcher is to set expectations for how the session will go and make the person on the other side feel comfortable as they can be given the situation.

Note the contradictions between behavior and what people say. People enjoy helping others and are generally agreeable by nature. They will try to answer the question you ask and give you the answers you want (even if the question is poorly constructed).

Track the core questions

Grouping questions under themes can help as you may be able to solve multiple problems in fewer actions. Note whether you’re trying to understand “why” (qualitative) vs. “how many, how much, how often” (quantitative) questions. There’s a bias toward generalizing big data because the numbers involved can feel impressive and fail-proof— surveying 500 people may appear to be a great thing as opposed to just doing interviews with five subject matter experts. Yet without understanding the “why” behind actions, observing, and listening for needs beyond what is obvious, big data can become a crutch for speculating that we already know what we’re looking for. It’s ok to end up with more questions, as long as they are better questions.

Final Takeaways

Consumers don’t want to jump from product to product, but instead find a brand that is designed to please them. Businesses that place value and importance on this will be the ones to see repeat visits, and eventually, new customers. User experience research is just one way to ensure you always keep their end-user top-of-mind when designing a mobile product. By employing the methods and tips listed above, you will be giving yourself the best chance to understand what your users like and don’t like truly. In an oversaturated market, that can be the difference between repeat usage or someone deleting your product.

Usability is a significant part of mobile app development, and it plays an essential role in creating user experiences that are efficient and enjoyable. Overlooking something as simple as navigation in a mobile app can severely impact the product’s user experience (UX). In other words, if your mobile app is useful and valuable to the user but requires a lot of time and effort, people won’t bother learning how to use it. 

This article provides an overview of mobile app usability and seven best practices to overcome common usability problems. 

What is Mobile App Usability?

Professionals define usability as the quality attribute that assesses how easy a system interface is to use. Usability contributes to the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in which specified users achieve specified goals. 

Many people confuse usability with UX design and vice versa; however, mobile app usability is an aspect of UX that plays into the overall relationship between a user and the product. UX defines all aspects of a user’s perception of a mobile app, including usability. 

Mobile app usability promotes learnability. A successful app needs to be intuitive, and it should take very little time for a user to achieve a certain degree of familiarity with the interface. If a user encounters an issue, a solution should be easily discoverable. Mobile app onboarding is an effective way to guide users through a mobile app, enhance usability, and recover from errors. 

Heuristic Principles for Mobile App Usability

Many factors contribute to a mobile app’s usability that will impact the overall efficiency and effectiveness in which a user completes their goals. A usable interface should have three primary outcomes:

• Mobile app usability makes it easy for the user to become familiar with the user interface (UI) 
• It should be easy for users to achieve their goal when using the app
• Apps need to be error-free. If your app doesn’t function properly, the rest of your UX elements are mute. 

Jakob Nielsen outlined ten usability heuristics to guide user interface design, but it’s important to note that they serve as a general rule of thumb rather than specific usability guidelines. However, they dramatically improve the usability of mobile products.

1. Visibility of the System Status 

The act of making system elements and structures visible, so the user has context-awareness. The system should always keep the users informed about what is going on through appropriate feedback within a reasonable time. 

Source: Gal Shir

2. A Match Between the System and the Real World

The system should speak the users’ language, with words, phrases, and concepts familiar to them. Avoid using any system-oriented or technical jargon. It’s vital to follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order. 

3. User Control and Freedom

Users can sometimes take actions within an app that they didn’t intend to take. When a user makes a mistake, they will need a marked “emergency exit” without lengthy dialogue or explanation. Mobile apps need to support undo and redo functions. 

4. Use Consistency Standards

Users should never wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing throughout the product.

Consistency is a fundamental principle of excellent UX design because it reduces confusion. While it’s essential to use standard elements from other applications, it’s also imperative to keep your mobile app’s overall appearance consistent. This principle includes visual consistency, functional consistency, and external consistency. Typefaces, fonts, buttons, and labels need to be uniform; interactive elements should work predictably in all parts of your app, and your design decisions should be consistent across multiple products. By maintaining consistency, users can apply existing knowledge when using your mobile app.

Source: Mohammad Amiri

5. Error Prevention 

Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before committing to an action. 

6. Recognition Rather than Recall

Minimize the user’s cognitive load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the application to another. Instructions for the use of the system should be visible or easily accessible whenever appropriate. 

7. Flexibility and efficiency of use

Accelerators— unseen by the novice user— may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to personalize frequent actions. 

8. Aesthetic and Minimalist Design

Screens should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a screen competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility. 

Clutter is one of the worst inhibitors of good design. Decluttering your mobile app’s user interface is one effective way to reduce a product’s cognitive load. Every additional button, image, and icon makes the screen and the product’s user flow more complicated. It’s essential to eliminate anything that isn’t necessary for the mobile app design. It’s a best practice to keep content and interface elements to a minimum and only present the user with what they need to know. Always opt for a simple and intuitive design.  

9. Error Handling

Error handling has a considerable impact on UX. Poor error handling paired with unclear error messages can also cause frustration and push a user to abandon an app. Never assume a user is tech-savvy enough to figure out errors. Always tell users what’s wrong in plain and concise language. Every error message should indicate: 

1. What went wrong and possibly why
2. What steps the user should take to fix the problem

Source: Jiang Xiaobei

10. Help and documentation

While it’s always better to interact with a system without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be accessible to search, focused on specific tasks, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large. 

7 Mobile App Usability Best Practices

With Nielsen’s heuristic principles in mind, the following is a list of seven best practices to overcome common mobile app usability problems.

1. Platform Compatibility

A common frustration for mobile users is not having an app that works for their specific model of smartphone. Android and iOS, for example, are two drastically different platforms.

You can’t merely clone an iOS app for Android and vice versa. Each operating system adheres to entirely different programming, design, and interface considerations. For example, navigation for each platform differs dramatically. With that in mind, you should create your app to have a native feel so your users can interact intuitively. It’s a good idea to budget for this to optimize your app for the most common Android and iOS smartphones.

2. Provide Value Right Away

If you want new users to return to your app, you need to make sure that they discover the value early on, preferably during the onboarding process. If you don’t convince users to stay within the first week, you’re likely to lose them forever. Millions of apps saturate the market, all of them competing for user attention, so it’s critical to make sure you offer immediate value. 

Great user onboarding not only lowers abandonment rates but can also help boost long-term success metrics like user retention and user lifetime value.

3. Simple Navigation

One of the main issues that users have when using mobile apps is poor navigation.

When users first download your app, they need to clearly understand how to navigate to complete their goal, whether that’s booking an appointment, purchasing a product, or finding information. Your navigation should have as few barriers as possible. Many apps include unique features but struggle to fit them together to make sense for the user. The navigation should be understandable for the user so they won’t end up lost on a random screen.

When focusing on usability, make sure that your products or services are straightforward to find. The more complicated it is for users to navigate the app, the higher the user abandonment rate.

4. Clear & Concise Content

It’s common knowledge to simplify content when designing for mobile. However, you need just enough content that is essential to the user to complete a goal. This practice is particularly true for a buying process. Consumers still need complete information to make their purchase, and withholding basic information will result in a lower conversion rate. You should be tailoring your content for mobile, rather than copying it verbatim from the web. Including too much information in your mobile app will undoubtedly result in poor UX with frustrated users digging to find specific content. Make it as easy as possible to consume your content with as little pinching and zooming as possible by presenting the information clearly and concisely.

5. Minimize The Number of Steps

Every time your user needs to complete an action, check to see if there’s a more straightforward way to make their experience more natural. Consider each act you require of your user as an added barrier. The fewer steps you include, the closer your users are to completing their goal.

Clutter is one of the worst inhibitors of good design. Decluttering your mobile app’s user interface is one effective way to reduce a product’s cognitive load. Every additional button, image, and icon makes the screen and the product’s user flow more complicated. It’s essential to eliminate anything that isn’t necessary for the mobile app design. It’s a best practice to keep content and interface elements to a minimum and only present the user with what they need to know. Always opt for a simple and intuitive design.  

For e-commerce or retail apps, in particular, checking out can be frustrating. You have to type in your address, email address, and confirm that you selected the right product all while using a small screen. One practical approach is to make it simple to create an account with a Facebook login. Designing your app with a convenient guest checkout option will also encourage users to make more purchases in less amount of time. Other notable features to consider during development are using an autofill and large checkout buttons. These design elements will amount to a seamless path-to-purchase and overall satisfaction with the UX.

6. Reduce Scrolling

Content prioritization also contributes significantly to the usability of an app. Users should get most – if not all – of the information they need to decide within their screen limits. Scrolling down is sometimes unavoidable and required in some instances, but always try to avoid side-scrolling. If a user needs to scroll sideways, it typically hides valuable content.

7. Consider Landscape Orientation

When developing a mobile app, many people don’t consider landscape orientation as necessary. A good mobile app should be designed for both portrait and landscape to accommodate optimal usability and UX, particularly for an app that contains video content.

User Testing & Feedback

The most important thing you can do to test usability is to use mobile A/B testing platforms. A/B testing allows you to compare two or more variations of a particular app design or layout. For instance, you can test the effectiveness of buttons and how they differ in driving conversions. Which design layout converts more users? Instead of guessing what users prefer in your mobile app, test to validate these assumptions. To improve mobile app usability, you cannot overlook testing. 

Final Word

A mobile app’s success hinges on just one main thing: how users perceive the product. The usability contributes directly to how a user feels about your app as they consider the ease of use, the perception of the value, utility, and efficiency of the overall experience. Usability is what will help convert users into loyal, long-term customers, in turn, generating more revenue for your app.

According to Statista, there were 204 billion apps downloaded in 2019. That number is expected to grow to 258 billion in 2020. The revenue from mobile apps worldwide in 2019 was $462 billion. These numbers can easily inspire any business to invest in mobile app development. But then there’s this: according to data acquired by Quettra, the average app is uninstalled by 77% of its users within the first three days after installation. Adjust’s research received similar data and found that, on average, apps get uninstalled within 5.8 days after installation. Fortunately, their data also found out that 40% of users who deleted an app will reinstall it again in the future.

What does this mean for you and your business? If you want to get your fair share of revenue in the mobile app market, you’re going to need to make sure that your app is designed with website accessibility in mind, especially the onboarding process. With only 20% of users opening an app once before deleting, you need to make an exceptional first impression to ensure customer retention.

What is mobile app onboarding?

Mobile app onboarding is the series of screens that walk you through on how to use an app the first time you open it. This process aims to educate the user on the functions of the app as well as the benefits of using it. It also enables the user to create an account (if necessary). Moreover, the process allows the company to deliver personalized content and notifications to the user based on the information on their profile. 

Why is app onboarding important?

App onboarding is a product’s first impression, and first impressions tend to last. The mobile app onboarding process should create a positive user experience, making them excited about using the app. It sets users’ expectations while demonstrating how they’ll benefit from using the app. It also prevents users from feeling frustration or stress when using a new app that may include an unfamiliar interaction. 

What is an accessible application? 

App accessibility is based on the principles of universal design. An app that is designed with accessibility in mind ensures that everyone can use it regardless of their ability. This makes it easier for a wide range of people to use the app. Accessible content is similar. It refers to content on the internet that is “available” to all. It is when you design your website and digital tools in such a way that anyone can use it. What does that mean for your mobile app? This means that when you design your app, which includes your onboarding process, it should be accessible—both usable and user-friendly.

Best practices of mobile app onboarding

How do you ensure that your mobile app onboarding process can achieve its purpose—to educate users and provide them with a positive experience? Consider implementing the following tips:

Highlight your value proposition 

With so many apps in the market, users have become spoiled for choice. You need to convince a potential user quickly on the usefulness of your app. This means you need to communicate your value proposition immediately so that they will stay around to complete the rest of the onboarding process. In short, tell them, “here’s what you can do with our app.”

Make all content accessible 

Apply web content accessibility guidelines such as contrasting text color, a clean typeface, and relative font sizes. Making sure that the screens of your onboarding process are compatible with a screen reader is another way to create accessible content.

Designing for accessibility allows users of all abilities to use your mobile app successfully. Consider how users with vision loss, hearing loss, kinetic impairments, and other disabilities will interact with your app. This includes design decisions like using weight to convey importance, using visual signifiers alongside color distinctions to indicate required actions or error prompts, and giving users the ability to opt-out of certain design elements like animations and sounds. Finally, you want to avoid any jargon because unknown or difficult words and phrases increase the cognitive load of the application and make it difficult to use for some user segments.

Only ask for what you need  

The more time users need to spend providing information, the more frustrated they feel. They can become impatient if you ask for too much information right away. While your marketing may want all that data to create a full profile, you need to ask yourself if the information is necessary at that stage. For example, a flashlight app doesn’t require the user to input an email address or location to function, so asking for it will frustrate potential users. However, certain apps may require more than a few details during the onboarding process. For example, a tax filing app will need to ask a lot of questions during the onboarding process. Users generally won’t mind if it takes two minutes to get everything started because their answers will help them reach their objectives. 

Keep everything simple and quick 

One of the principles of user experience design is to keep things simple. Don’t overwhelm your users with too many visual stimuli. Your layout should be uncluttered. Also, keep your onboarding short. Don’t be so excited to show them everything cool about your app. Focus on the essentials only, those that demonstrate how the app fulfills their needs. According to a survey conducted by Clutch, almost 72% of users want the onboarding process limited to 60 seconds or less. 

Make it easy to sign up  

Signups can be a barrier to user retention. Make it easy for your user to login fast by allowing them to sign in using their existing social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter. 

End with a call-to-action  

Add a call-to-action (CTA) at the end of your onboarding process to give users an idea of what step they can take next. For example, a recipe app can end the onboarding process with “Add recipes” as their CTA. A good CTA can nudge your user in the right direction. As a result, they engage with the app as quickly as possible.

Onboarding Design

When you’re designing the onboarding process, there are a couple of styles you can choose from. 

1. Coach screens
   Coach screens tell the user the value of the app and how they can use it. Each screen focuses on one concept, such as a critical feature. The user then swipes through the screens to finish the onboarding process.

2. Interactive tutorials
   Instead of telling you what the app can do (value + key features), an interactive tutorial demonstrates the app’s functions. The demonstration guides you on the steps you need to take to complete certain tasks. For example, a farming simulation game will show you how to play by guiding you on what to click on to achieve the first goal of planting and harvesting crops.

One last thing: 

Because mobile app onboarding needs to be quick and straightforward, you can’t cover all the functionalities of your app. It’s also not enough time to cover all of the benefits that your app provides. This means that your work is not done after the onboarding process. To continue to provide value to your users and engage them in the app, you can provide them with additional resources such as video tutorials and how-to emails detailing functionalities and features you were not able to explain before.